Meeting MPs, policy praise and Ed Balls buzzing at the Labour Party conference

This week Trustee Alun Morgan joined our Policy team at the Labour Party conference, to tell people about the nitty-gritty of living with Parkinson's.

"Being a Trustee I am used to getting involved in all manner of meetings to try and spread the word about Parkinson's.

Alun watches Ed Balls try our buzzwire game

"This week, I had a very worthwhile week of getting to know people, talking to MPs about what it's like to have Parkinson's, and even meeting Ed Miliband.

"The conference was a great chance to speak to MPs in person and we gave briefings to Stephen Timms, Huw Irranca-Davies and Anne Maguire, which were very effective. My role was to get down to the nitty-gritty and speak about what it's like to live with Parkinson's day-in-day-out.

"We also talked about the current work capability assessments, how badly these have affected people with Parkinson's, and how they are completely unsuited to our needs. They seemed genuinely interested and even told us they would do some lobbying work in Parliament over the new Personal Independence Payment which lot of people are worried about.

"One highlight of the conference was when Baroness Thornton told us that Parkinson's UK gives really good policy briefings which is why we get so many mentions in Parliament - great praise for the team!

"Another memorable moment was when I saw a big crowd, realised something important was going and shot over there to introduce myself to Ed Miliband. It was a brief encounter, but I got the chance to tell him I was a trustee for Parkinson's UK and he expressed his sympathy that I was living with the condition.

"Our buzzer machine was one of the main attractions at the conference and a great photo opportunity for lots of MPs including Ed Balls, who I sort of harassed into coming over. Every time I saw him I said 'are you coming then?' - until eventually he did!"

Our information stand will also be at the Conservative party conference next week (7-11 October). 

To see our pictures and tweets from all of the party conferences, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/parkinsonsuk